1. AT HARD DISK PREPARATION program 1.0
KFH ASSOCIATES, 1985
2771, Middleborough
SAN JOSE, CA 95132
FOR IBM AT & COMPATIBLES
PC and XT needs HDPREP.exe
DOS 2.0/2.1/3.0/3.1
** If you think the program is useful to you,
$35.00 donation to H. King at above
address will register for updating service
2. The program READ in the hard disk drive parameters from the
controller to determine the available number of heads and cylinders
for each attached drive, if the controller follows the IBM BIO
convention. Otherwise, the program defaults to 2 head and 100
cylinders for each drive. When this happens, the controller usually
has problem.
3. Hard disk preparation uses the controller default parameters in the
BIOS.
Instructions:
The program is manual driven and self explanatory. The following is a
summary.
Options:
1. Select the drive to be operated on. Drive 0 is the first hard disk
drive attached to the controller (usually the C:), Drive 1 is the
second one (usually the D:).
2. Perform the controller FORMAT of the specified drive by option 1.
See option 3. Run FDISK and Dos FORMAT after this step.
Bad track locations can be input at this step and the program
will use the input to mark the bad ones accordingly.
3. Perform the controller FORMAT of the specified drive by option 1
and scan the disk for bad tracks and mark them bad. Run FDISK and
DOS FORMAT after this step. This option 3 is preferred to option 2.
In the begining of this step, you can enter the bad tracks if you
already know them. This step marks any bad track found,
the ones you entered, at the end of the process.
4. Move the head to track 0 for the specified drive.
5. Exit this program.
6. Set the interleave number for the controller FORMAT. The default is
6 which is used by IBM PC/XT. Do not use other number unless you
have enough knowedge on the controller. Adaptec controller can use
interleave 2.
7. If you know a specific track and head location is bad, you can use
this option to mark the track bad. Use DOS FDISK AND FORMAT after
this step.
8. If you want to remark a bad track to reuse the track, you can use this
option. This option can not physically correct the defect track.
9. The same operation as the option 3, except during the verify process
more data patterns are used. The process can take twice longer then
the option 3. Usually, the option 3 is good enough.